Language Camp at Singita Grumeti

During the month of June, the Grumeti Fund hosted 90 children at an English immersion camp held at the Environmental Education Center.  Through a collaboration with language experts from Concordia Language Villages and Concordia College, third and fifth grade students attended the camp while their local schools were on break.

The camp was identified as a priority by our Community Outreach Program due to challenges students face in transitioning from Swahili-medium primary school to English-medium secondary school.  For children to successfully progress through the national curriculum they need the ability to read, write and speak in English to pass their exams.

The Concordia Language Villages Program is a world-renowned program in language immersion located in the US.  For the Tanzania context, CLV has adapted their approach to cater to the specific learning styles and needs of the students.  We are happy to report that the first two sessions have gone extremely well.  The Dean of the program Patty Gulsvig says, “The children are so eager and excited to learn! Each day they are in camp we see a growing confidence in speaking English as they learn new vocabulary. The children learn through fun and engaging language lessons, crafts, singing and dancing. It has been such a positive experience for the staff and children – they love, love camp. We love, love the children!  Thank you to the Grumeti Fund!”  Because of the success of this pilot the Grumeti Fund plans to scale up this project and looks forward to tracking the progress of the language camp students to realize the long-term impacts of the program.

To donate to this program please click here

Photos by Madeline Malat